Lauren's Beach Crush (14 page)

Authors: Angela Darling

BOOK: Lauren's Beach Crush

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Lauren felt her face flush as Frank took one step closer and finally looked up, grinning in the most shy and adorable way.

This vacation was going to have the perfect ending after all. The Plan had worked. It didn't work the way she thought it would with the guy she thought it would, but it worked with the right guy. She smiled to herself. It turned out the Plan was foolproof. There was just one minor change she'd need to make to the end of the Plan with the heart at the bottom of the flowchart to make it perfect:

Frank + Lauren = TLF

She couldn't wait to tell Chrissy later. But right here, right now, all she wanted to do was enjoy the moment, and wonder at the way sometimes things really do work out okay in the endÂ .Â .Â . even without a plan.

Here's a sneak peek at the next book in the series:

Maddie likes Gabriel

Does he like her too?

Maddie's Camp Crush

“MOM, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TURN LEFT, NOT
right!” Maddie Jacobs said impatiently as her mother turned down a lonely looking dirt road.

“Recalculating,” announced the cool computer voice of the GPS.

“See? I told you!” Maddie said.

Mrs. Jacobs brushed a strand of brown hair from her face. “I'm just doing what the stupid machine told me to, Maddie,” her mom explained in a voice filled with frustration.

“Actually, that is not what the stupid machine told you to do,” Maddie pointed out. “By the time we get to camp, the season will be over!”

Her mother gripped the wheel. “Maddie, I'm doing my best, okay? Just let me concentrate.”

Maddie leaned back in her seat and resisted the urge to make another comment. Mom had been such a mess since Maddie's father died in the fall. Losing Dad had been hard on everybody, but her mom just didn't seem to be getting any better. It sounded harsh, but sometimes Maddie wished she would just get it together already.

Sighing, Maddie turned to look out the window. Camp was an hour and a half away from home, in the woods of Pennsylvania. The roads were lined with green trees, and the sky above was a perfect July blue. But looking at the familiar scenery only made Maddie feel sad.

When Dad was alive, the trip to camp had been one of the most fun parts of the whole summer. Dad would sing songs that he'd learned at camp when he was a kid, and he'd roll down the windows and they'd all sing along with him loudly. Then he'd make corny jokes about camp, and even though he told the same ones every year, Maddie would still crack up.

“Why did the camper put a snake in the other camper's bed?” Dad would ask, and Maddie would pretend she didn't know the answer.

“Why?” she would say.

“Because she couldn't find a frog!” Dad would finish, and he and Maddie would laugh while her mom rolled her eyesâbut she was always smiling.

Then when they got to camp, he would give Maddie the biggest, tightest good-bye hug ever, and he would even pretend to cry, making all her camp friends laugh. In truth Maddie was always a little sad when her parents left, but she never missed them for long because her dad always left a funny note hidden somewhere that Maddie would findâunder her pillow or tucked in her slipper or even in the pocket of her bathrobe. Her throat tightened as she thought about the fact that there wouldn't be a note this year. She started to tear up, and she turned to the window to make sure her mom wouldn't see her.

After a deep breath, Maddie glanced at the clock. It was 11:03, and she started to feel anxious. Check-in had started an hour ago, and the girls who checked in first got to pick their beds first. If she didn't get to sleep near Liza, Libby, and Emily, her best camp friends, it would be terrible.

I'll probably end up with a bed next to the shower or the bathroom or something
, she thought gloomily.
Liza had said she would try to save her a bed, but they weren't supposed to do that, so Maddie was sure she'd be stuck. She wouldn't be surprised, considering how things had been going wrong ever since last night. After Maddie had packed her duffel bag with everything she needed for six weeks of summer camp, her mom realized that she couldn't lift it and drag it down the stairs to the car. That had never been a problem for Dad. He would always hoist it high over his head and say, “Oof, Mads, what did you pack, brick bathing suits?”

So this morning Mom had called Mr. Donalty from next door and he'd put the bag in the car for them. He was really nice about it, but the whole thing made Maddie miss her dad even more. Besides that, Mom had forgotten to make her special going-away breakfast. Dad had always made her French toast or pancakes.

“Eat up, Mads,” he'd say. “You're going to be eating that icky camp food for weeks!”

All Mom had said this morning was, “Are you hungry?” Maddie had answered no, but Mom handed her a bagel as they left the house.

Now she snuck a look at her mother, who was leaning
close to the steering wheel and gripping it tightly. She knew that Mom hated driving far from home, but she didn't accept Uncle Jay's offer to drive them up this year. Maddie wasn't sure why, but her Mom had been funny about accepting help from anyone lately.

Maddie's thoughts shifted to her camp friends, Liza and Libby and Emily. They'd come to the funeral last fall, but that whole thing was a blur. Maddie had been texting them all year long, but it wasn't the same as seeing them in person. She couldn't wait until they could all hang out together, laughing and talking like they always did. Just as long as they didn't want to talk about her dad.Â .Â .Â . She didn't care if Libby told that story about when the possum surprised her in the bathroom that one summer, even though Libby had told it a million times already. She'd rather talk about anything but her dad.

“Camp is going to be good for you, Maddie,” her mom had said when Maddie had talked about skipping it this year. “It'll take your mind off things.”

Maybe Mom was right
, Maddie thought. The excitement of seeing her camp friends again was a really good feeling, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time.

“Recalculating,” announced the GPS again.

“
Mom!
” Maddie yelled, and her mother jumped in her seat.

“Don't yell while I am driving, Madeline!” she yelled back.

Maddie pouted quietly while her mom made another turn. Finally, Maddie saw the familiar sign down the road to the right:
CAMP WIMOWAY ENTRANCE A
.

“Finally!” Maddie cried, and a look of relief came over her mom's face as she turned down the narrow winding road to camp.

The tree-lined road emerged into a clearing of rustic wood cabins. Cars filled the parking lot as parents dropped off their campers, but Maddie didn't recognize any of themÂ .Â .Â . because they were all boys!

Maddie and her mom exited the car, confused. A male counselor wearing a red Camp Wimoway shirt approached them.

“Here for drop off?” he asked.

“Yes,” Mrs. Jacobs replied, anxiously looking around. “She's in the Hannah bunk this year.”

Camp Wimoway was divided into a boys' camp and
a girls' camp, and each camp was divided into bunks, or cabins. In the girls' camp the bunks were named after former counselors from a long time ago: Hannah, Sarah, Betty, and Gail.

“We've rearranged camp this year,” the counselor informed them. “We sent out a map and a note, but some parents didn't get them, I'm afraid.”

Mom looked a little guilty.
Great
, Maddie thought.
More changes
.

“You should have gone to Entrance B,” the counselor explained. “It's about a quarter mile down the road and then you make a left.” Mrs. Jacobs took a little notebook from her purse and he started to draw a map for her.

Maddie remembered that Entrance B led to the camp where the “baby” camp division wasâthe camp for kids who were, like, six to eight years old. And now that was where the girls' camp was? How embarrassing! Why couldn't Mom have read that e-mail? She started to slink back into the car before anyone noticed she was in the wrong place, but curiosity took over and she looked around at her old camp once more. It was weird to think that the boys were now living where the girls used to live.

A mom and dad walked past with a crying little boy, and Maddie knew how he felt. She had cried her first year in camp too. She looked at her cabin from last year and saw a couple of the boys her own age hanging around on the steps: Jared and Evan. They both looked so much taller than they were last summer! Then Brandon walked up to them. He lived only one town over from Maddie back home, and they had taken a tennis class together in the spring. He nodded at her, half-waving, and she looked away.

He's probably wondering why I'm standing in the middle of the boys' camp like a loser,
she thought, and then she turned to open the car door, eager to become invisible before anyone else noticed her.

The sound of a voice coming from a nearby bunk made her pause. It was a boy's voice, a really cool, deep voice with a British accent. She turned slightly and saw a boy about her ageâa boy with the most beautiful face she had ever seen.

ANGELA DARLING
was nicknamed “The Love Guru” by her friends in school because she always gave such awesome advice on crushes. And Angela's own first crush worked out pretty wellÂ .Â .Â . they have been married for almost ten years now! When Angela isn't busy watching romantic comedies, reading romance novels, or dreaming up new stories, she works as an editor in New York City. She knows deep down that
every
story can't possibly have a happy ending, but the incurable romantic in her can't help but always look for the silver lining in every cloud.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.